Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Xinjiang Regional Museum, situated in Xibei Road, Urumqi City, is a large comprehensive museum and center for collecting and studying on the cultural relics in Xinjiang.The museum, built in 1953, has an exhibition hall covering about 7,800 square meters. The construction here is in a Uigur style, and the internal decoration is rich in ethnic features. Over 50,000 items of treasure are displayed here, not only to represent the ethnic life and humanity here, but to illustrate its revolutionary spirit. With such abundant items, the exhibition is widely known for its comprehensive and informative nature at home and abroad. The exhibition is related to folk customs including costume, tool and every day necessities. Together they vividly show the dress, lifestyle, religion, marriage custom, festival and other aspects of the colorful life of 12 minorities living in Xinjiang. The historical relics include carpentries, ironwares, bronze wares, bright and beautiful brocades, tomb figures, pottery, coins, rubbings from stone inscriptions, and writings as well as weapons and so on. These give an insight into the past and show the history of Xinjiang. There is even a fossil of human head dating back to 10,000 years ago.The display of ancient corpses is fantastic, for it was here where a great number of ancient and well preserved remains were discovered. These are quite different from the mummies in Egypt that were created through skilled embalming procedures; the corpses here were dried in a particular natural environment. In all there are 21 samples including men, women, lovers, and generals. The 'Loulan beauty' is one of those in good condition and noted home and abroad. The 'Loulan beauty' has a reddish brown skin, thick eyelashes, charming large eyes, and long hair. This particular 'charming' corpse has survived for about 4,000 years.You can visit Xinjiang Museum in any season for the amazing human remains and all the other precious relics, and the brilliant civilization that flourishes in Xinjiang.